Dark Heritage
by Shadowblade217
Summary: What if Cooler had decided to go after baby Kakarot's spaceship on the day Planet Vegeta was destroyed? Raised as one of Cooler's elite soldiers, Kakarot eagerly looks forward to the day when Cooler will move against Frieza. But when Kakarot encounters other Saiyans for the first time in his life, as well as the natives of a planet called Earth, he begins to question everything...


**Disclaimer: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT and their respective franchises are the property of Funimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.**

_**Dark Heritage**_

**Chapter 1: Fateful Decisions**

_Planet Vegeta_

_Age 737_

In the cold upper atmosphere of Planet Vegeta, the homeworld of the Saiyan race, two figures hovered, facing each other.

One was a Saiyan warrior, by the name of Bardock. He was injured, blood seeping from half a dozen wounds, but he remained defiant, even in the face of the most terrifying being he had ever seen.

Frieza, the overlord of the galaxy and ruler of the Planet Trade Organization, eyed the disobedient Saiyan warrior who dared to stand up to him. He could have simply obliterated Bardock with a thought, caused the Saiyan's body to explode from within as an example of what happened to those who crossed him.

But… no. That wasn't enough. The Saiyans had become a threat, and this had never been more clear than it was now, in the form of this one. Simply killing Bardock wouldn't suffice. Frieza had to end this, to crush the problem that the Saiyans posed, now and forever. And what better way to do that than by obliterating their entire race in one shot?

Bardock, with no knowledge of Frieza's thoughts, concentrated his energy, forcing all of his ki down into his right hand. His hand lit up with blue light, the glow illuminating the crazed snarl on his face.

"This is for all the people we killed in your name!" he roared, swinging his arm forwards and launching the ki blast at Frieza. "Here! HAVE IT!"

Frieza's eyes narrowed, and then he laughed. His laughter grew, as a small orange energy sphere formed at the tip of his right index finger and then began to expand, growing rapidly larger until it was truly gigantic, a sphere of power a hundred meters across. With a casual flick of his index finger, the Death Ball shot forward, moving at an incredible rate. When it collided with Bardock's hurtling ki blast, the much weaker blast was simply absorbed into the Death Ball.

As the massive energy sphere filled his vision, Bardock's eyes widened in dismay and fear. An instant later, the Death Ball engulfed him, accelerating and ripping through the swarm of Frieza's soldiers, incinerating hundreds of them instantly.

As Bardock's armor shattered and fell away, he saw, for an instant, an image in his mind's eye; a Saiyan who looked just like a younger version of Bardock himself, facing off against Frieza.

"_That's… Kakarot!"_ he thought in surprise, his consciousness slipping. _"So… it will be his destiny to succeed where I have failed. May you do your race proud… my son."_

Bardock smiled, closing his eyes, an instant before the heat and pressure of the Death Ball disintegrated him, reducing his body to ashes.

As the Death Ball impacted the surface of Planet Vegeta and sank towards the core, Frieza laughed in delight, the lights of the explosion reflected in his red eyes.

Unbeknownst to Frieza, Bardock, or anyone else who had been present, the entire scene had been observed by another party.

.

Not far away from Planet Vegeta, another ship, which bore a striking resemblance to Frieza's, drifted through the void. On the bridge, a trio of alien figures, wearing purple skintight bodysuits under white armor, were checking the results from the ship's instruments. On the main screen, an image of Planet Vegeta was clearly visible, the planet shaking as Frieza's Death Ball sank beneath its surface, towards the core.

"Ah, and there goes ze whole monkey farm," Salza, a blue-skinned humanoid with blonde hair and a confident smirk on his face, remarked. "Now, this is live entertainment!" His eyes narrowed as he checked a reading on one of the other, smaller screens. "What's this? Someone is getting away!" He extended a hand to Neiz, a brown-skinned alien soldier with a froglike head. "Magnify ze image!"

Nodding quickly, Neiz adjusted the readouts, shifting the image onto the main screen. The feed showed a single Saiyan space pod, rocketing across the void away from the doomed planet.

"Now, where is zis little one going?" Salza mused.

"From what I can find, it seems like he's headed toward a planet called Earth," Neiz replied.

Salza nodded. "Very well, then. Plot an intercept course!"

"Belay that order."

The drawling tones caused all three soldiers to freeze in place; they each dropped to one knee as a hoverchair similar to Frieza's dropped from the ceiling to hover among them.

"But, my lord… someone is escaping!" Salza protested.

"And that's not our problem," their leader replied as the hoverchair glided forward, towards the screen. "Frieza's in charge in this quadrant; let him clean up his own mess."

The figure's lips curved in a smirk. "If he's going to whine and beg our father for control over the entire system like a spoiled little brat, then he's going to accept the responsibility. Besides, it's just a Saiyan child. He's no threat to us." Forgetting the child momentarily, he raised one hand, indicating an image of Frieza on one of the screens as his brother laughed maniacally at the planet's destruction. "Look at him!" he muttered disdainfully. "He's so arrogant that he's blinded by his own pride. That could be King Vegeta on that pod, for all he knows."

With a sigh, Cooler turned to face his three minions. "You've got a lot to learn, brother," he said softly, to himself.

As Cooler prepared to give the order to leave, something stopped him. Turning back to face the screen, his eyes locked on the image of the Saiyan space pod that was fleeing the destruction of Planet Vegeta.

Cooler's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Salza might actually have a point, but not for the reasons he thought. Saiyans were about to become a dying race; at most, there might be a handful of them who had been out on missions when Frieza arrived. That meant that Saiyan soldiers – who could be among the strongest, toughest fighters in the galaxy, if rumors were to be believed – were going to become a rare commodity within a few minutes' time. Especially a Saiyan child, who Cooler could mold into a soldier that he might be able to use against his brother.

Cooler was under no illusions regarding his brother; he hated Frieza with every fiber of his being. He had cared for his brother deeply once; they'd been best friends, closer than anyone else. But those feelings had vanished the moment Frieza – the younger of the two – had been appointed as the new head of the PTO by their father, a position that should have been Cooler's by right of birth. King Cold had always preferred Frieza over Cooler, putting down his older son at every chance he got.

After a long moment, Cooler made his decision.

"Actually, Salza, you're right," he announced. "We're not letting that ship get away." He smirked. "Not when there's a potential new soldier on it, anyway. Plot an intercept course immediately."

Salza saluted him. "As you wish, Lord Cooler!"

As Salza issued orders, the ship banked, flying away from Planet Vegeta just as the Saiyan homeworld exploded in a gigantic fireball.

It didn't take them too long to chase down the Saiyan pod; a tractor beam snagged the small vessel as soon as they were within range, and it was quickly reeled in. Cooler himself, accompanied by Salza, strode into the hangar bay just as the vessel was hauled in and touched down on the smooth floor.

Walking over to the craft, Salza quickly entered a code sequence into the keypad, causing the pod to open with a hiss. Inside, as Cooler had expected, was a young Saiyan, no more than a couple of days old, with spiky black hair and a tail wrapped protectively around his waist.

Cooler nodded. _Excellent._ With a casual exertion of telekinesis, he lifted the Saiyan baby out of the craft and into the air, holding it up effortlessly. The baby began to cry almost immediately.

"Quite a set of lungs on him," Cooler commented dryly. Salza nodded, although Cooler noticed that his second-in-command seemed discomforted by the noise.

"Take him to the medical wing and get him some clothes and food," Cooler instructed, lowering the child into Salza's hands. Gingerly carrying the baby, Salza turned and left the hangar.

Bending down, Cooler reached into the space pod, searching for the control to deactivate the behavior modification systems designed to shape the infant's mind towards bloodlust and the urge to conquer and destroy. Cooler wanted this Saiyan to be able to think for himself; a soldier with the ability to make their own decisions was much more useful than a soldier whose mind had been effectively programmed by a machine.

Locating the control, Cooler waited for a moment; he knew that this infant's name would be loaded into this pod's system. Sure enough, as the message ended and started to play again, he heard the child's name.

"Kakarot," he murmured thoughtfully. Switching off the recording, he rose, closed the pod, and turned to leave the hangar, adding, "Something tells me things are about to get much more interesting around here."

.

_AN: Hello, everyone, and welcome to my newest story, _Dark Heritage_! I'd been toying with the idea for this story for quite a while, and I finally decided to write it down and see how it plays out! In case anyone's confused, the plot of this story revolves around Cooler raising Kakarot as one of his soldiers, so Kakarot never goes to Earth as a child. We will be including the human Z-Fighters and the other inhabitants of Earth in this story, so don't worry about that, but their storyline won't be crossing paths with Kakarot's for quite a while._

_I do apologize for this chapter's being so short – I just needed to introduce the setting and get the story started – but don't worry, chapters will get much longer in the future._

_I tremendously appreciate comments and feedback on my work, so if anyone has a comment or question regarding this chapter or the story as a whole, please review! (No hate, please)._

_See you all next time!_


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